Eco-Chickens Shut Down GM Importer

At 8am on 20 November sixty Greenpeace volunteers dressed as pantomime chickens shut down the UK's only GM soya mill. The plant at Gladstone Docks, Liverpool, is the main gateway for GM crop imports into the UK and processes both GM and normal soya. Most of the crop is mixed into animal feed, while oil extracted from the beans is sold for use in food such as crisps and biscuits. Neither GM animal feed or GM derivatives in food are required to be labelled.

The chickens were concealed in four trucks which were driven into the plant through the main gate. The trucks were immobilised, blocking the weigh-stations used by grain trucks as they enter and leave the site. Sixty chickens then burst out of the back of the trucks and dispersed across the facility. Many chained themselves to equipment in the plant, while others scaled and shut down a 40-metre-high conveyor belt. After attaching a 'GM INSIDE’ banner to the mechanism they set up camp in a Portaledge (a small tent suspended over the side of the conveyor belt).